Ferrari Land to rise inside PortAventura resort and theme park in Spain

PortAventura Entertainment S.A.U. has inked a licensing agreement with Ferrari to build Ferrari Land inside the PortAventura resort and theme park outside Barcelona in Spain. The 75,000-square meter Ferrari Land, a new Prancing Horse theme park, features a variety of new and exciting attractions for Prancing Horse enthusiasts of all ages, including the highest and fastest vertical accelerator in Europe.

The first Ferrari-themed luxury five-star hotel will also be built inside PortAventura featuring 250 rooms, restaurants and a driving simulator. The EUR100-million project will officially open in 2016. PortAventura boasts of 4,000,000 visitors annually, more than half of whom come from outside Spain. PortAventura is now considered as the Mediterranean’s top amusement park as well as the second-ranked in Europe, thanks mainly to over EUR125 million investment spread over a four-year period, in addition to the initial sum invested in Investindustrial’s purchase.

“PortAventura is one of the leaders in Europe’s tourism sector, while Ferrari is an iconic company that represents the very best of Made in Italy,” Andrea C. Bonomi, Senior Partner at Investindustrial, remarked. “The synergy between the two groups creates a powerful combination that means we can offer clients of both brands a unique experience. We are proud to be able to make this contribution to fostering the growth of the Ferrari brand and Made in Italy across the world.”

Andrea Perrone, CEO of Ferrari Brand, the Ferrari subsidiary company that manages the Prancing Horse’s brand-related activities, added: “After the success of Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, we received many, many requests to develop new amusement parks. We carefully sifted through the various proposals and decided to accept Investindustrial’s because it is a very solid plan developed by competent people that will bring the magic of Ferrari to Spain, a nation where we have many supporters and enthusiasts, and to which large numbers of tourists flock each year, in part thanks to PortAventura. This new licence further underscores our brand’s presence in this area. Ferrari Land will delight the whole family and not just Formula 1 fans. We will continue to evaluate other proposals for theme parks outside Europe at our leisure: the brand is our most important asset and we have to enhance its value without diluting it."

Sergio Feder, Executive President of PortAventura, also declared: “After our successful experience with Gardaland (Italy’s leading amusement park with almost 3.5 million visitors a year), we developed a long-term business development plan with Investindustrial to make PortAventura one of the best family destinations in Europe. Right from the start we have always been clear about our desire to develop the resort with high-profile international brands to ensure we achieve our target of around 5 million visitors a year. Ferrari was an obvious choice for this, not merely because of what the brand itself represents but also because of its experience with the Ferrari World Park at Abu Dhabi. It is also a source of great pride to us to be able to support such a world-famous and internationally-respected brand.” [source: Ferrari]